Irvine Welsh hints at film version of Crime

IRVINE Welsh has hinted that a film adaptation of his novel Crime may be in the pipeline, after telling an audience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival that preliminary discussions had taken place.

Irvine Welsh was in fine form at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Picture: Toby Williams

Welsh, who performed a reading from latest novel A Decent Ride and took questions from a sell-out audience at the book festival’s Baillie Gifford Theatre, was quizzed by fans about any upcoming projects.

And the Leither revealed that he had held talks with director Jon S Baird and actor Jamie Bell, who portrayed Crime’s protagonist Ray Lennox in prequel Filth.

Welsh, whose recent novel A Decent Ride sees a return for promiscuous taxi driver ‘Juice’ Terry Lawson, admitted that he felt the filming of Crime might have to wait until Bell ‘looks a bit more grizzled’.

Bell, who portrayed Hallam Foe in the film of the same name as well as voicing Tintin in the Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg animated film The Adventures of Tintin, turned 29 in March, but still has a youthful look about him.

Staying on the subject of sequels, Welsh touched on the 20th anniversary of Trainspotting, in 2016.

There has been talk of a film sequel to the 1996 hit film starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald and Welsh said that, while there had been some stumbling blocks largely to do with actors being booked up filming other productions, he was more confident than he had been previously that a Trainspotting sequel would happen.

“I’m probably about 50 / 50 over the chances of [the sequel] happening,” Welsh revealed.

The author also remained tight-lipped over his new novel, due out next year, only revealing to the audience that it was ‘grim, nasty and fun’ and was set in Scotland.

Welsh’s last book prior to the Edinburgh-set A Decent Ride had been The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins, which takes places in Florida’s Miami Beach.